Meech said that the circular magnet, which had come off her son's Spiderman toy, could be seen lodged inside the hamster's cheek.

The hamster had to spend the Easter bank holiday in a plastic box, "for obvious reasons" Meech added.

Two of Kate Meech's children holding Smurf and the Spiderman toy

Meech told the Northampton Chronicle and Echo she then left the hamster alone, as she believed Smurf would spit it out on her own. However her body started to repel the metal magnet through her cheek, "treating it as a foreign body."